Lost Sorcery- Mage of Myths

by Claire Chilton

  She couldn’t quite convince herself that it was true though because she felt as if she was getting worse not better.

  She glanced at the other side of the cart. Binks was curled up under a rug near her feet, and Caelan was slumped against the side of the cart beside her. Her eyes rested on Caelan for a moment. He looked serene and relaxed for once.

  She wondered what would happen between them when this was all over, if anything would happen. Would he leave to go on another quest without her once this one was done? Would he go back to the Sun Guard? She couldn’t imagine a world where they would fit together because everything that he wanted was everything she wanted to avoid, a life of servitude to the elves.

  His eyelids fluttered, and she found herself looking into his warm brown eyes as they lit up when he flashed her a lazy smile. Her heart skipped a beat.

  Okay. Maybe there is something about us together that works.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but the words came out in a cry as the cart jerked abruptly sideways. A second later, she heard a loud splatting sound outside.

  She turned to face the front of the cart to see Tagra running in a zigzag pattern to avoid the giant brown balls of fur that fell out of the sky and exploded on the road ahead.

  ‘What the hell?’ She rolled onto her knees and crawled towards the front seat as the cart wobbled and shook while it smashed against the wall in Tagra’s wake.

  She hurried to reach Aleck and Holly, who were being thrown around in their seats and were gripping onto the cart for fear of tumbling out of it.

  Aleck was thrown into the air as the cart jolted, but luckily Holly grabbed his legs and threw him back into the cart.

  Malian ducked as he flew past her and landed on Binks, who shot awake and pushed him off him with a cry: ‘Ger off me, you flaming imbecile!’

  Malian hurried to the front seat and peered up at the sky ahead. A line of fur balls with legs and arms were standing at the top of the mountains, and they were throwing themselves off, like fluffy bombs at the cart as it passed by.

  She stared in horror as one flew past her face, narrowly missing the cart as Tagra made a sharp left. She stared down at the giant ball of fur as it hit the ground and tried to hug it. It was making noises. They all were. It sounded as if they were trying to say the word ‘nargle’ over and over again. She jumped as another one hit the ground nearby, shaking the earth with its impact.

  ‘What are they?’ she cried over the noise.

  ‘The ruins must be guarded by Narglesplats.’ She heard Binks voice behind.

  She turned to face him. ‘What is a Narglesplat?’

  ‘They’re mammals who like to hug. They land on you by splatting on top of you. Then they hug you to death,’ Binks said with a completely straight face.

  ‘Are you joking? That’s the most ridiculous way to kill someone, ever.’ Malian stared at him with what she hoped was an incredulous expression.

  The little wizard shrugged. ‘Nature isn’t always rational.’

  She watched another giant ball of fur land behind the cart. ‘How do we stop them?’

  ‘You run.’

  The cart jerked again, and Tagra yelped as one nearly hit her.

  Without thinking, Malian leapt onto Tagra’s back. ‘I’m coming!’

  Tagra looked back and widened her eyes at her.

  ‘Keep going!’ she cried at Tagra. ‘I’ll guide you.’ She gripped the bear’s powerful shoulders and tugged on them to guide the bear through the pass and away from the falling Narglesplats.

  Eventually they passed the downpour of falling, fluffy hugs of death and came to a halt inside the old Dwarven ruins. Tagra was panting, and she flopped down onto her belly as Malian climbed off her.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Malian patted the bear on the side.

  Tagra narrowed her eyes at her.

  ‘Okay. Fair point.’ Malian turned to face the rest of the group. ‘Everyone okay?’

  Caelan crawled out of the cart while holding his hand to his mouth. He shook his head while looking a bit queasy.

  Binks jumped down and peered around, appearing unfazed by the journey so far.

  Holly stared ahead with wide eyes. She was still in cat form and frozen in position, her claws embedded in the wooden seat of the cart.

  Aleck fell out of the back of the cart with a yelp. He groaned and rolled over to look at Malian. ‘It occurs to me that I should have stayed in that book.’

  Malian turned to Binks. He seemed completely oblivious to their near-death by fluffy hugs experience. ‘Did you know that would happen?’

  ‘How would I know? Holly is the one showing us the way.’ He pointed to Holly, who looked petrified.

  ‘Then why are you so calm?’ Malian narrowed her eyes at him.

  ‘When you’re on a quest, things get dangerous.’ He pointed to Caelan, who appeared to be throwing up behind a withered old tree. ‘Hey, Sun Elf. How’s your first quest feeling now.’

  Caelan replied by ducking back behind the tree and making a ‘blargh’ sound, which made Binks chuckle.

  Malian turned to Holly. ‘Hey, are you okay?’

  The cat woman just stared at her with wide eyes.

  She waved her hand in front of her face, and Holly’s eyes followed her hand as if it were a mouse. ‘Did you know this would happen?’

  It took a moment for Holly to respond as she slowly shifted from being a werecat to a woman. ‘Did I know that hug-crazy fur balls were going to fall out of the sky?’ she asked incredulously. Then she shivered at the thought.

  ‘I’ll take that as a no,’ Malian said. ‘I’m guessing you’re not a lap-cat. No hugs for you, right?’

  Holly shot her a dirty look.

  ‘Okay.’ Malian turned back to face Binks, who was bending down and picking up soil in his hand. ‘So, are we in the right place?’

  He let the soil trickle through his fingers. It looked like grey sand, powdery and dry. ‘We’re in a dead place,’ he muttered.

  He stood up and scanned the ruins.

  Malian stood by his side and looked ahead too. The Dwarven ruins were made up of broken pillars, stone entrances that only led to barren lands and twisted old trees because the buildings behind them had fallen away with damage or decay.

  ‘What are we supposed to find here?’ she asked.

  ‘Hopefully, the rune.’ Binks pulled the scroll out of his satchel and studied it. ‘But it’s not clear. The scroll says to come here to find Hellian, but that could have many meanings.’

  ‘What are some of the meanings?’ Caelan asked.

  Malian turned to see him take a swig out of a water canteen. She offered him a look of sympathy.

  ‘Hellian was the elemental of fire, so she was a goddess in ancient elven. However, the word is also used to describe fire, the core of the planet, the underworld and a spicy dish made with beans and vegetables in the Centair Desert.’

  ‘So, we could be looking for some beans for all we know?’ Malian rubbed her eyes in frustration.

  ‘It’s a possibility.’ Binks shrugged.

  ‘I refuse to bring back magic beans as my first quest.’ Caelan folded his arms.

  ‘Better than bringing back nothing,’ Binks muttered before he walked forward and began to examine the ruins.

  Malian shrugged. Magic beans would be better than coming all this way for nothing. She stopped beside Binks and studied the old pillar. The carvings seemed mostly decorative. There were no hints of anything unusual about them to her.

  ‘Do you see it?’ Binks asked her.

  She frowned. ‘What, the pillar?’

  ‘No, the big picture’

  She turned around and studied the area. All she saw were old dead things. Even the grass was dead here. It was how she’d expect a ruin to look.

  She glanced back at Binks and shook her head.

  He rolled his eyes. ‘It’s dead.’

  ‘Yeah, so?’

  ‘It’s a dead land.’ He looked at her expectantly.
/>
  ‘Right.’ She nodded even though she had no idea what he was hinting at.

  ‘There’s nothing here.’ Judging by the tone of his voice, he was starting to lose his patience with her.

  ‘I see that.’ She nodded.

  He slapped his forehead. ‘It’s a clue!’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ She knew she wasn’t a hundred percent physically fit at the moment, but she was almost certain that her mental capacity hadn’t shrunk.

  He sighed. ‘Deadlands. We need to go to the Deadlands.’

  ‘You can’t know that from this.’ She gestured around at the barren landscape, suppressing a wave of dizziness at the same time.

  ‘This isn’t a natural death.’ He knelt and picked up a dried clump of grass, which turned into dust in his hand. ‘This land died unnaturally. It’s magic doing it.’

  ‘How do you know?’ She frowned.

  ‘I can feel it, and so can you.’ His sharp blue eyes locked on her. ‘It’s making you ill again.’

  ‘The Deadlands doesn’t sound like a good place to go,’ she said.

  ‘Is it going to be worse than the toxic swamp or fur ball pass?’ Caelan asked dryly as he walked up behind them.

  ‘Probably.’ Binks shrugged.

  ‘Will we find the rune there?’ Malian asked.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Binks shrugged.

  ‘Then why should we go?’ She tried to ignore the wave of tiredness that washed over her.

  ‘Because life is worth nothing without purpose. To give up on your quest is to give up on life.’ Bink’s voice was filled with power when he spoke, and it snapped her out of the lethargy that kept trying to consume her.

  She narrowed her eyes, realising that there was a battle being fought inside her, and it seemed her own willpower was the only thing that could defeat it. ‘Fine.’ She straightened her shoulders. ‘Let’s go to the Deadlands.’

  18

  DEADLANDS

  Malian patted Tagra on the side as she walked beside her. It had only been a few miles to reach the Deadlands from the Dwarven ruins, but she felt her legs tremble with every step..

  Come on. Wake up. What’s wrong with you?

  She gripped the dagger at her belt. She didn’t know what was wrong with her, but she felt weaker than she ever had. The fever seemed to have stolen her strength, and no matter how much she tried to fight it, each step was becoming a stumble.

  Caelan on the other hand seemed so full of energy as he strolled beside her as if he was talking a walk in the park.

  She glanced behind her. Even Binks, who was always complaining about some ache or another, seemed happy to keep walking.

  She looked ahead, trying to find the will to keep going, but the landscape ahead didn’t inspire much hope. Gnarled and blackened trees were twisted around the edges of black bubbling ponds of what looked like tar. The earth was scorched, and the skies were ominous and dark.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Caelan asked her.

  She glanced at him. ‘I’m just wondering what we’re going to run into here.’

  ‘The goblins rule this land.’ He pointed to the dark spires in the distance. ‘Since they took it from the humans in the Battle of Balgraith. This whole area used to be lush farmlands and villages. But the humans got greedy and broke a deal with Karrak, the goblin king, so he sent in his armies and took over their kingdom. He wiped them all out, and made this place into the Deadlands.’

  She studied Caelan with curiosity. ‘How do you know all that?’

  He shrugged. ‘The Sun Guard have to study all the great battles as part of their training.’

  ‘This is the result of a great battle?’ She gestured to the haunted land, which felt as if it was sucking the life out of her.

  ‘Strategically, the goblins were a superior force. It’s war. War never ends looking very nice.’

  ‘Maybe there is no such thing as a great battle.’ She looked ahead at the misty horizon.

  ‘I guess it depends on what you’re fighting for.’ Caelan sounded uncertain.

  She was about to reply, but she froze instead. Her eyes widened as she saw a face in the mist, a shadow of a person running through the smoke ahead of them. But the more she looked, the less she could see.

  ‘What is it?’ Caelan asked as she pulled Tagra to a halt.

  ‘There’s someone out there.’ She pointed to the mist.

  He squinted into the distance. Then they both gasped as a dark figure flitted through the smoke again.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Binks shouted from the back of the cart.

  Malian turned and held her finger to her lips to silence him. ‘There’s someone watching us,’ she whispered.

  ‘Oh yeah. Ignore them. Keep going.’ Bink’s voice echoed loudly through the air.

  Malian slapped her forehead. ‘Way to be stealthy.’

  ‘There’s no need for stealth. It’s just the ghosts of the dead. They can’t do anything to you.’

  Aleck peered around from the back of the cart, his handsome face displaying an alarmed expression with wide eyes. ‘The what?’

  ‘It’s just ghosts.’ Holly repeated Binks statement, sounding bored. ‘They’re like sad clouds. They won’t bother you.’

  Aleck stared at her as if she was crazy. ‘What’s wrong with you people? You don’t safely walk through a field of ghosts.’

  ‘Maybe not in your dimension, buttercup,’ Binks muttered. He turned to Malian. ‘Ignore the scarewolf, and keep going.’

  Malian glanced at Caelan, and he shrugged.

  She patted Tagra on the side to tell her to keep going, and then continued walking beside her into the fog.

  Visibility became more difficult the further they walked until they were surrounded by swirling white mists. Haunted moans echoed through the fog, and Malian tried to ignore the twisted faces that appeared in the clouds, stretching into horrific expressions of pain.

  She swallowed as she kept putting one foot in front of the other, drawing closer to the dark shadows as the ghosts of the dead echoed around her, each vision an image of pain and suffering.

  ‘Hang on. This isn’t normal.’ She froze when she heard Bink’s voice. ‘Why are they so twisted?’

  ‘Because they’re dead.’ Aleck’s voice echoed behind them.

  ‘No, but they usually just try to farm the land or something.’ Binks sounded confused.

  ‘There’s something else here.’ Holly’s enchanted voice echoed through the mist.

  Malian tried to reply, but she couldn’t as she watched a dark shape float through the clouds towards her. She froze in terror, a bubble of panic growing in her throat as she watched its dark cloak trail behind it, the rotten material trailing behind it like snakes.

  It’s eyes glowed white, and she could see it open its mouth and bare dripping fangs at her. She heard Caelan draw his sword, but she couldn’t move.

  Come on. Move! Get your dagger, your bow.

  But her body refused to respond. It wasn’t fear. It was something else, something binding her in place, keeping her from lifting a finger to defend herself.

  The wraith headed straight for her, it’s claws now visible beneath the sleeves of its robe as it reached for her.

  ‘What is it?’ Caelan cried.

  ‘It’s not a ghost,’ Binks shouted. ‘Kill it!’

  ‘It’s a demon!’ Aleck growled as he raced by her, his body already changing into that of a wolf.

  Holly quickly followed in cat form. They attacked the creature, tearing at is dark form with their teeth and claws until the creature evaporated into dark smoke.

  Malian breathed a sigh when the creature evaporated, but she still couldn’t move or speak. Her eyes widened as several dark shapes amassed behind Aleck and Holly.

  Caelan roared as he drew his sword, which lit up with an ice-blue glow of power that even the demons seemed to fear as they recoiled away from him.

  Malian caught sight of dark shapes coming at her from the side, and she mo
ved closer to Caelan, hoping his sword would repel them too.

  ‘Malian, watch out, above you!’ Binks cried.

  She raised her eyes, unable to move any other part of her body, and she saw the dark talons of another wraith reaching for her from above.

  They’re all coming for me.

  She tried to move, but her body refused to as the wraith opened its mouth impossibly wide, creating a circle of sharp teeth that were about to swallow her whole into a black abyss.

  But then something hard hit her in the side, knocking her to the ground.

  She looked up to see Caelan slice through the demon that had been above her with his sword, as Tagra’s shaggy head hovered above her.

  The bear had knocked her over to save her.

  She lay helplessly on the ground as she watched Caelan cut through another demon before he reached down and threw her over his shoulder. Then he leapt into the cart.

  ‘Move it. They’re after Malian!’ he cried.

  Tagra started running, pulling the cart behind her as she ploughed through the wall of demons.

  Caelan dumped Malian unceremoniously on the bed of the cart. Then he launched himself at the demons who were clawing at the cart, fighting them off as they tried to advance towards them and reach Malian.

  After Binks, Aleck and Holly jumped into the cart, Binks shot bolts of electricity around them, creating a wall of lightning, a forcefield that caused the demons to turn into black smoke when they tried to cross the boundary.

  The demons fell away, eventually disappearing altogether as the cart broke through the smoke. Once they were gone, Malian found she could move again.

  She tried to sit up, but her muscles were weak, and she felt cold.

  Caelan sank to his knees beside her once the demons were gone. He looked relieved until he looked at her. He quickly touched her forehead. ‘She’s burning up again!’

  Binks frowned as he looked down at her, and he seemed indecisive, which was unusual for the tiny wizard.

  ‘Why are you taking so long?’ Caelan demanded.

  ‘There’s only one place near here that has healers more powerful than Holly.’ Binks glanced at Holly. ‘Is there nothing you can do?’

  Holly shook her head. ‘The fever that’s burning her is supernatural magic. I can only heal what’s natural.’